Eye protection next on pandemic classroom list

Faced with rising COVID-19 cases and highly infectious variants, Manitoba schools are adding another item to their arsenal of personal protective equipment: eyewear.

Public health officials are now supporting the use of both medical masks and eye protection by teachers and staff “who are unable to consistently and reliably maintain t
wo metres of distance,” a government spokesperson confirmed Friday.

Manitoba Education has received orders for upwards of 85,000 “frames with lenses” and 4,700 face shields from 34 school divisions.

In Winnipeg, St. James-Assiniboia, Pembina Trails, River-East Transcona and Louis Riel school divisions have all ordered the new eyewear for staff.

“We’re definitely in a third wave, and what I hope is we’re going to take evidence-based approaches in all that we do. We see evidence-based approaches in the health sciences, and we’re trying our best here in LRSD to have evidence guide our decisions,” said superintendent Christian Michalik.

Should the supply chain co-operate, Michalik said the division will soon be able to provide each staff member with three medical-grade face masks daily, as well as eye protection, until the end of June.

Officials have informed divisions eye protection should be cleaned daily and disposed of once every week, he said.

Some educators have already started wearing eye protection, as COVID-19 exposures in schools spike and more classes are forced to pivot to temporary remote learning.

Families at Collège Jeanne-Sauvé, Lavallee School and Dalhousie School all learned Friday their children’s schools are shifting fully to distance learning on Monday. Earlier in the week, École South Pointe School and École St. Avila made similar announcements.

“From the perspective that the virus spreads as an aerosol and your eyes are vulnerable because that’s a potential entry point into your body, then definitely, having some protection over your eyes is beneficial,” said Thomas Tenkate, an associate professor at Ryerson University’s School of Occupational and Public Health in Toronto.

Tenkate, however, said schools, which require engaged two-way conversations, are much different than other workplaces such as hospitals or construction sites, where eyewear is typically used as extra protection.

EYEWEAR IS USED IN HIGH SCHOOL TRADES, MECHANICAL AND SCIENCE CLASSES

Given how uncomfortable eye protection can be, he said it’s worth considering what is actually feasible and safe for school staff working in those environments.

Tenkate added: “From a health and safety perspective, we’re trying to create conditions where people don’t have to wear PPE because PPE is the last line of defence.”

Maggie Macintosh, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Free Press

A BIG SCAM

Schools spending millions on air purifiers often sold using overblown claims

By Lauren Weber and Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News

MAY 3,2021

Last summer, Global Plasma Solutions wanted to test whether the company's air-purifying devices could kill Covid-19 virus particles, but could find only a lab using a chamber the size of a shoebox for its trials. In the company-funded study, the virus was blasted with 27,000 ions per cubic centimeter. The company said it found a 99% reduction of virus

.

 PROVO, UT - FEBRUARY 10: A teacher prepares her classroom before students arrive for school at Freedom Preparatory Academy on February 10, 2021 in Provo, Utah. Freedom Academy has done in person instruction since the middle of August of 2020 with only four days of school canceled due to COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

The report doesn't say how this reduction was measured, and in September, the company's founder incidentally mentioned that the devices being offered for sale would actually deliver a lot less ion power -- 13 times less -- into a full-sized room.

The company nonetheless used the shoebox results in marketing its device heavily to schools as something that could combat Covid in classrooms far, far larger than a shoebox.

School officials desperate to calm worried parents bought these devices and others with a flood of federal funds, installing them in more than 2,000 schools across 44 states, a KHN investigation found. They use the same technology — ionization, plasma and dry hydrogen peroxide — that the Lancet COVID-19 Commission recently deemed "often unproven" and potential sources of pollution themselves.

In the frenzy, schools are buying technology that academic air-quality experts warn can lull them into a false sense of security or even potentially harm kids. And schools often overlook the fact that their trusted contractors — typically engineering, HVAC or consulting firms — stand to earn big money from the deals, KHN found.

Academic experts are encouraging schools to pump in more fresh air and use tried-and-true filters, like HEPA, to capture the virus. Yet every ion- or hydroxyl-blasting air purifier sale strengthens a firm's next pitch: The device is doing a great job in the neighboring town.

"It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more people buy these technologies, the more they get legitimacy," said Jeffrey Siegel, a civil engineering professor at the University of Toronto. "It's really the complete wild west out there."

Marwa Zaatari, a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers' (ASHRAE) Epidemic Task Force, first compiled a list of schools and districts using such devices.

Schools have been "bombarded with persistent salespersons peddling the latest air and cleaning technologies, including those with minimal evidence to-date supporting safety and efficacy" according to a report released Thursday by the Center for Green Schools and ASHRAE.

Zaatari said she was particularly concerned that officials in New Jersey are buying thousands of devices made by another company that says they emit ozone, which can exacerbate asthma and harm developing lungs, according to decades of research.

"We're going to live in a world where the air quality in schools is worse after the pandemic, after all of this money," Zaatari said. "It's really sickening."

The sales race is fueled by roughly $193 billion in federal funds allocated to schools for teacher pay and safety upgrades — a giant fund that can be used to buy air cleaners. And Democrats are pushing for $100 billion more that could also be spent on air cleaners.

In April, Global Plasma Solutions said further tests show its devices inactivate Covid in the air and on surfaces in larger chambers. The company studies still use about twice the level of ions as its leaders have publicly said the devices can deliver, KHN found.

There is virtually no federal oversight or enforcement of safe air-cleaning technology. Only California bans air cleaners that emit a certain amount of ozone.

U.S. Rep. Robert "Bobby" Scott (D-Va.), chair of the House Committee on Labor and Education, said the federal government typically is not involved in local decisions of what products to buy, although he hopes for more federal guidance.

In the meantime, "these school systems are dealing with contractors providing all kinds of services," he said, "so you just have to trust them to get the best expert advice on what to do."

These go-between contractors — and the air cleaner companies themselves — have a stake in the sales. While their names might appear in school board records, their role in selling the device or commission from the deal is seldom made public, KHN found.

A LinkedIn job ad with the logo for one air purifier company, ActivePure Technology, which employs former Trump adviser Dr. Deborah Birx as its chief medical and science adviser, recruited salespeople this way: "Make Tons of Money with this COVID-killing Technology!!" The commission, the post said, is up to $900 per device.

"We have reps [who] made over 6-figures in 1 month selling to 1 school district," the ad says. "This could be the biggest opportunity you have seen!"


'A tiny bit of ozone'

Schools in New Jersey have a particularly easy time buying air cleaners called Odorox: A state education agency lists them on their group-purchasing commodity list, with a large unit selling for more than $5,100. Originally used in home restoration and mold remediation, the devices have become popular in New Jersey schools as the company says its products can inactivate Covid.

In Newark, administrators welcomed students back to class this month with more than 3,200 Odorox units, purchased with $7.5 million in federal funds, said Steven Morlino, executive director of Facilities Management for Newark Public Schools.

"I think parents feel pretty comfortable that their children are going to a safe environment," he said. "And so did the staff."

Environmental health and air-quality experts, though, are alarmed by the district's plan.

The Pyure company's Odorox devices are on California air-quality regulators' list of "potentially hazardous ozone generators sold as air purifiers" and cannot be sold in the state.

The company's own research shows that its Boss XL3 device pumps out as much as 77 parts per billion of ozone, a level that exceeds limits set by California lawmakers for the sale of indoor air cleaners and the EPA standard for ground-level ozone — a limit set to protect children from the well-documented harm of ozone to developing lungs.

That level exceeds the industry's self-imposed limit by more than 10 times and is "unacceptable," according to William Bahnfleth, an architectural engineering professor at Penn State who studies indoor air quality and leads the ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force.

Jean-Francois "JF" Huc, CEO of the Pyure company, pointed out that the company's study was done in a space smaller than they would recommend for such a powerful Odorox device. He cautioned that it was done that way to prove that home-restoration workers could be in the room with the device without violating work-safety rules.

"We provide very stringent operating guidelines around the size of room that our different devices should be put in," he said. But school staffers are often not warned about the potential problems if a too-powerful device is used in a too-small room, he acknowledged.

You can't see or smell ozone, but lungs treat it like a "foreign invader," said Michael Jerrett, who has studied its health effects as director of the UCLA Center for Occupational and Environmental Health.

Lung cells mount an immune-like response, which can trigger asthma complications and divert energy from normal lung function, he said. Chronic exposure has been linked to more emergency room visits and can even cause premature death. Once harmed, Jerrett said, children's lungs may not regain full function.

"Ozone is a very serious public health problem," Jerrett said.

Newark has some of the highest childhood asthma rates in the state, affecting one in four kids. Scholars have linked outdoor ozone levels in Newark to elevated childhood ER visits and asthma is the leading cause of school absenteeism there.

Adding ozone into the classroom is "just nightmarish," Siegel, of the University of Toronto, said.

Morlino said the district plans to monitor ozone levels in each classroom, based on the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration level for working adults, which is 100 parts per billion.

"In our research of the product," he said, "we've determined it's within the guidelines the federal government produces."

While legal for healthy working adults, the work-safety standard should not apply to developing children, said Michael Kleinman, an air-quality researcher at the UC Irvine School of Medicine. "It's not a good device to be using in the presence of children," he said.

But the devices are going into schools throughout the state that will not be monitoring ozone levels, acknowledged Dave Matisoff, owner of Bio-Shine, a New Jersey-based distributor of Odorox. He said the main safeguard is informing schools about the appropriate-size room each device should be deployed to, a factor in ozone concentration.

Huc, the CEO, said his team has measured levels of ozone that are higher outdoors in Newark than inside — with his company's units running.

"There is a tiny bit of ozone that is introduced, but it's very, very low," he said. "And you get the benefit of the antimicrobial effect, you get the benefit of reduction of pathogens, which we've demonstrated in a number of studies, and you get the reduction of VOC [volatile organic compounds]."

Meanwhile, despite expert concerns, the devices continue to pop up in classrooms and school nurses' offices across the state, said Allen Barkkume, an industrial hygienist for the New Jersey teachers union.

He doesn't blame schools for buying them, as they're a lot less expensive than overhauling ventilation systems. Teachers often push for the devices in their classrooms, he said, as they see them in the nurses' offices and think it'll keep them safe. And superintendents are not well-versed in air quality's complex scientific concepts.

"Nothing sounds better than something that's cheap, quiet, small and easy to find, and we can stick them in every classroom," Barkkume said.

Tested in shoebox, sold for classrooms

While New York officials are "not permitting" the installation of ionization devices due to "potential negative health effects," schools across the state of New Jersey are installing ionizing devices.

Ten miles away from Newark in Montclair, New Jersey, parents have been raising hell over the new Global Plasma Solutions' ionizing devices in their children's classrooms. The company website promises a product that emits ions like those "created with energy from rushing water, crashing waves and even sunlight."

The devices emit positive and negative ions that are meant to help particles clump together, making them easier to filter out. The company says the ions can also reduce the viral particles that cause Covid-19.

But Justin Klabin, a building developer with a background in indoor air quality and two sons in the district, was not convinced.

He spent hours compiling scientific evidence. He created YouTube videos that painstakingly pick apart the ionizers' viability and helped organize a petition signed by dozens of parents warning the school board against the installation.

Even so, the district spent $635,900 on installing ionizers, which would go in classrooms serving more than 6,000 kids. The devices are often installed in ducts, an important consideration, the company founder Charles Waddell said, because the ions that are emitted lose their power after 60 seconds.

But the company's shoebox study and inflated ion blast numbers that helped sell the product last year leave a potential customer with little sense of how the device would perform in a classroom, Zaatari said.

"It's a high cost for nothing," Zaatari said. The company has sued her and another air-quality consultant for criticizing their devices. Of the pending case, Zaatari said it is a David-versus-Goliath situation, but she will not be deterred from speaking on behalf of children.

"Size of the [test] chamber has proved not to play a role in efficacy results but rather ion density," GPS spokesperson Kevin Boyle said in an email. The company notes by its Covid-inactivating test results that they "may include ... higher-than-average ion concentrations."

He also said the company is proud to meet the ASHRAE "zero ozone" certification.

Glenn Morrison, a professor of environmental science and engineering at the University of North Carolina, reviewed a March GPS study on a device combating the Covid virus in the air. The device appears to reduce virus concentrations, he said in an email, but noted it would not be very effective under normal building conditions, outside a test chamber. "A cheap portable HEPA filter would work many times better and have fewer side effects (possibly ozone or other unwanted chemistry)," he wrote.

Other parents joined Klabin's campaign, including Melanie Robbins, the mom of a kindergartener and a child in pre-K. Armed with her background in nonprofit advocacy, she reached out to experts. She and other parents spoke at local government meetings about their concerns.

In April, the superintendent told parents the school would turn off the devices, but parents say they haven't turned them all off.

"As far as I understand, the district has relied only on information from GPS, the manufacturer," Robbins said during a Montclair Board of Education meeting via Zoom on April 19. "This is like only listening to advice from Philip Morris as to whether smoking is safe or not."

Dan Daniello, of D&B Building Solutions, an HVAC contracting company, defended GPS products during the meeting. He said they are even used in the White House, a selling point the company has made repeatedly.

The catch: A GPS contractor installed its ionization technology in the East Wing of the White House after it was purchased in 2018 — before Covid emerged, according to GPS' Boyle. But the company was still using the White House logo as a marketing image on its website when KHN asked the White House about the advertising in April. It was taken down shortly thereafter.

Boyle said GPS was "recently informed that the White House logo may not be used for marketing purposes, and promptly complied."

The Montclair school district did not respond to requests for comment.

"I want to bang my head against the wall, it's so black-and-white," Robbins said. "Admit this is a poor purchase. The district got played."


Selling 'the Big Kahuna'

Academic air-quality experts agree on what's best for schools: More outside air pumped into classes, MERV 13 filters in heating systems and portable HEPA filters. The solution is time-tested and effective, they say. Yet as common commodities, like a pair of khaki pants, these items are not widely flogged by a sales force chasing big commissions.

After Covid hit, Tony Barron said the companies pitched air purifying technology nonstop to the Kansas district where he worked as a facility manager last fall.

Pressure came from inside the school as well. Teachers sent links for air cleaners they saw on the news. His superintendent had him meet with a friend who sold ionization products. He got constant calls, mail and email from mechanical engineering companies.

The hundreds of phone calls from air cleaner pitches were overwhelming, said Chris Crockett, director of facilities for Turner USD 202 in Kansas City, Kansas. While he wanted to trust the contractors he had worked with, he tested four products before deciding to spend several hundred thousand dollars.

"Custodial supply companies see the writing on the wall, that there's a lot of money out there," he said. "And then a lot of money is going to be spent on HVAC systems."

ActivePure says on its website that its air purifiers are in hundreds of schools. In a news release, the company said they were "sold through a nationwide network of several hundred franchises, 5,000 general contractors/HVAC specialists and thousands of individual distributors."

Enviro Technology Pros, founded in January, is one company pitching ActivePure to HVAC contractors. In a YouTube video, the founders said contractors can make $950 for each air-cleaning device sold, and some dealers can make up to $30,000 a month. Citing the bounty of the billions in federal relief, another video touted ready-made campaigns to target school principals directly.

After KHN asked ActivePure for comment, the Enviro Technology Pros YouTube videos about ActivePure were no longer accessible publicly.

ActivePure did not respond to requests for comment but has said its devices are effective and one is validated by the Food and Drug Administration.

An Enviro Technology Pros founder, Rod Norman, told KHN the company was asked to take the posts down by Vollara, a company related to ActivePure. He called sales to schools "the big kahuna."

Shortly after he spoke with KHN, the website for his own company was taken down.

In an Instagram post that also disappeared, the company had asked: "4000 classrooms protected why not your kids?"

Man United violence the peak of toxic fan-owner relationship

THERE WAS NO VIOLENCE FROM FANS, INTERUPTTING THE GAME IN PROTEST WITH FLARES ETC,

MANCHESTER, England — The storming of Old Trafford crystalized 16 years of disconnect between Manchester United fans and its distant ownership.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

While choosing not to engage with the supporters who are the lifeblood of any club, the Glazer family can't have avoided seeing the levels of rage against them on Sunday. Not when it led to the unprecedented postponement of a Premier League game due to fan unrest, especially one of the biggest matches of the season between United and Liverpool.

Three months after celebrating success in the Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it was the Glazers' ill-fated bid to lead United into a European Super League that made their relationship with fans in England more toxic than ever before.

That led to co-owner Joel Glazer insisting he was “committed to rebuilding trust with our fans,” but there was no sign of that happening in the 10 days between the open letter and Sunday's protests.

THE PROTESTS

A rabble of more than 100 fans were able to stand on the field setting off flares after breaching the coronavirus-necessitated biosecure perimeter of the stadium. Outside, thousands more supporters spent two hours crammed onto the concourse demanding the Glazers sell the club.

AND WHO CAUSED THE VIOLENCE
Even though officers eventually managed to disperse the crowd just before the scheduled kickoff — with a combination of force using batons and a charge of police horses — the Premier League abandoned any hope of playing the game.

ORIGINS OF ANGER

The takeover of United in 2005 began with protests outside Old Trafford that featured burning effigies of the incoming ownership.

Fans were angered that a club without debt was loaded with liabilities that reached a high of 717 million pounds (then $1.1 billion) during the 2008-09 season. It's a debt that has had to be serviced and cost United, along with dividends to the Glazer family, more than 1 billion pounds in 16 years. It stood at 456 million pounds in December.

But protests against the Glazers that previously peaked with a visible display of dissent during a 2010 Champions League game faded amid the team's success. The club won the Premier League five times between 2007 and 2013 to become the record 20-time champions of England, usurping Liverpool. But since the retirement of Alex Ferguson in 2013 after more than 26 years in charge, the Premier League trophy has proved elusive.

“Your family’s ownership of the club has driven us into debt and decline,” the Manchester United Supporters' Trust wrote on Monday to Joel Glazer, “and we have felt ever more sidelined and ignored.”

It is only two weeks since Glazer tried to lead United into the breakaway European competition as vice chairman of the Super League. Fans were not consulted before the group of European clubs launched the closed European competition to replace UEFA's open access Champions League. The rebellion imploded inside 48 hours amid an outcry from government and fans.

Despite the lack of silverware, even as Manchester City emerged as England's dominant force fueled by Abu Dhabi investment, the protests at United have largely been dormant, simmering only in the background. While the Glazers wouldn't speak to MUST, the group toned down its public comments against them and seemed to focus instead on engagement with the administration in Manchester about the matchday experience to secure improvements.

FAN DEMANDS

The tone has shifted again with the letter to Joel Glazer requesting by Friday a response to a four-point list of demands to:

— Back a government review and “rebalance the current ownership structure in the favour of supporters";

— Appoint independent directors;

— Adopt a share scheme giving fans the same voting rights as the Glazer family with the New York Stock Exchange-listed business;

— Fully consult fans on any significant changes to the club.

COMMERCIAL SUCCESS

To end the current four-year trophy drought, United says there has been more than $200 million invested in players over the past two years — more than any other major European club. That has been funded by the growth of the commercial side of the business, with revenue almost quadrupling since the takeover to 627 million pounds before the pandemic. United has a self-sustaining business model with profit for the owners the priority, which enables them to draw dividends.

OTHER FOREIGN OWNERS

Across Manchester at City, it's been about an owner pumping money in since 2008. Funded by the wealth of Abu Dhabi, City is a means of a soft power being exerted by the United Arab Emirates, which has been criticized for its human rights and limited political freedoms, as much as it is about transforming men's and women's teams and the surrounding areas. While City fans did oppose the Super League there have been no protests demanding the sale of the club or the exit of club officials.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has also invested more than a billion pounds in the west London club since 2003 to turn it into a European power. The aborted Super League plan produced protests in the streets around Stamford Bridge centred on trying to unseat chairman Bruce Buck.

Protests more akin to the vociferous ones at Old Trafford came at Arsenal in the week of the Super League announcement, with fans of the north London club also demanding the exit of their NFL franchise-owning chairman Stan Kroenke. Unlike the Glazers, Arsenal's ownership has engaged with fans through Stan Kroenke's son Josh, who subjected himself to a video call to take a battering of questions over the Super League debacle.

The Super League reignited concerns in Liverpool about John Henry's Fenway Sports Group ownership and its lack of investment demanded by fans since the club ended its 30-year English title drought. Protests in the streets in 2010 helped to oust the previous American owners — Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. — as the club become burdened with debt it could not repay.

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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Rob Harris, The Associated Press

Glazers still 'not interested' in selling Man Utd with further protests planned

The Glazer family are not interested in selling Manchester United, despite supporters continuing to call for their heads to roll in the wake of the Super League scandal.

© Provided by 90min The Glazer family remain committed to Man Utd | Michael Regan/Getty Images

Supporters stormed Old Trafford recently to voice their frustrations towards the Glazers, which date back all the way to 2005, forcing the postponement of the Premier League match against Liverpool as a result of their actions.

OLI SCARFF/Getty Images United fans broke into Old Trafford in protest | OLI SCARFF/Getty Images

According to The Times, those fans involved are already planning further protests, with the rescheduled Liverpool game expected to be a target alongside the upcoming home match against Leicester City, but The Guardian do not expect the protests to work.

Per the report, the Glazers intend to stay on at Old Trafford as they plan to grow the club's value from £3bn to £7bn in the coming years.

The American owners are not thought to have been scared off by the protests and remain committed to the club, insisting they are the right people to help the business side of the club grow over years to come.

Can you believe it? They're only thinking about money? Shock.

© The Glazers have plans to increase Man Utd's value 

| Michael Regan/Getty Images

The Times do add, however, that the Glazers would be forced to think about any offers of around the £4bn mark.

With current shares in the club worth around £2.1bn, any potential buyer would need to offer up more than that to give the Glazers a profit, and the American owners could also encounter fees from banks and lenders which they would ask a buyer to cover, which would take the price to closer to that £4bn.

If nobody can come up with that kind of money, the Glazers will continue their mission to grow United's brand

.

 United must brace themselves for further protests | Charlotte Tattersall/Getty Images

With the owners not going anywhere, United's immediate focus will be on preparing themselves for these upcoming protests. They are already facing an FA investigation over their failure to adequately prepare first time around and club officials will be adamant that will not happen again.

United were angered by suggestions that they had allowed protesters on to the pitch, instead condemning the supporters who chose to force their way through locked doors to escalate the situation.

For more from ​Tom Gott, follow him on ​Twitter!

#NOOLYMPICS2020
Tokyo Games need 500 nurses; nurses say needs are elsewhere


TOKYO — Some nurses in Japan are incensed at a request from Tokyo Olympic organizers to have 500 of them dispatched to help out with the games. They say they’re already near the breaking point dealing with the coronavirus pandemic

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Olympic officials have said they will need 10,000 medical workers to staff the games, and the request for more nurses comes amid a new spike in the virus with Tokyo and Osaka under a state of emergency.

“Beyond feeling anger, I was stunned at the insensitivity," Mikito Ikeda, a nurse in Nagoya in central Japan, told the Associated Press. “It shows how human life is being taken lightly.”

The appeal for more nurses is typical of the impromptu changes coming almost daily as organizers and the International Olympic Committee try to pull off the games in the midst of a pandemic.

The Olympics are set to open in just under three months, entailing the entry into Japan — where international borders have been virtually sealed for a year — of 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and thousands of other officials, judges, sponsors, media and broadcasters.

In a statement from the Japan Federation of Medical Workers' Unions, secretary general Susumu Morita said the focus should be on the pandemic, not the Olympics.

“We must definitely stop the proposal to send as Olympic volunteers those nurses, tasked with protecting the fight against the serious coronavirus pandemic," Morita said.

“I am extremely infuriated by the insistence of pursuing the Olympics despite the risk to patients' and nurses' health and lives.”

A protest message saying that nurses were opposed to holding the Olympics went viral on Japanese Twitter recently, being retweeted hundreds of thousands of times.

Even before the pandemic, Japanese nurses were overworked and poorly paid compared with their counterparts in the United States or Britain.

Nursing is not only physically taxing but also emotionally draining, said Ikeda, who has been a nurse for 10 years. He said many nurses worry about getting infected themselves, with vaccination rates in Japan reported at only 1-2%.

“It’s hard for any hospital to go without even one nurse, and they want 500,” Ikeda said. “Why do they think that’s even possible?”

Deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Japan have just passed 10,000.

The British Medical Journal last month said that Japan should “reconsider” holding the Olympics, arguing that “international mass gathering events ... are still neither safe nor secure.”

Haruo Ozaki, chairman of the Tokyo Medical Association, has said it will be “extremely difficult” to hold the Olympics because of the new variants that are spreading.

He also explained that Japan’s medical community has been stretched while treating coronavirus patients and also doing the vaccine rollout.

“We have heard enough of the spiritual argument about wanting the games,” he said. "It is extremely difficult to hold the games without increasing infections, both within and outside Japan.”

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga suggested that nurses who have quit their jobs could help with the Olympics, although some resignations are tied to the stressful work dealing with coronavirus patients.

“I hear many are taking time off, and so it should be possible,” Suga said last week, in a widely criticized remark.

Athletes will operate in a “bubble” at the Olympics, housed in the Athletes' Village on Tokyo Bay and moved around in designated buses to venues and training areas. Hundreds of rooms are also reportedly being set up outside the village to take in those who fall ill.

Organizers will require daily testing for athletes and other participants, a momentous task for medical staff. It also contrasts with how little testing is being done for the Japanese public.

Public opinion surveys show up to 80% of the Japanese want the Olympics cancelled or postponed again. Much of the bill for holding the Olympics, estimated officially at $15.4 billion, falls on Japanese taxpayers.

“The situation is extremely serious," opposition lawmaker Tomoko Tamura said recently. "Nurses don’t know how they can possibly take care of this situation. It is physically impossible.”

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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Yuri Kageyama And Stephen Wade, The Associated Press

What History Can Tell Us About Working as an Immigrant Nurse in Canada

By Johna Baylon,

 Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

New Canadian Media

Mon., May 3, 2021

Editor’s note: This story was first published on April 28. This version corrects the acronym OIIQ to OIIAQ.

Like many internationally educated nurses (IENs) in Canada, Jeff Kua came to the country through the Live-in Caregiver Program.

It was 2010. His grandmother in Ontario had suffered a stroke, so his uncle suggested that Kua come to Toronto as her caregiver.

With his experience as an operating room nurse in the Philippines, however, Kua knew he’d eventually return to the profession he once served and trained for.

He started preparing for his nursing registration a year after he arrived. Back then, the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) considered work experience as a registered nurse (RN) within the last five years as valid. This means that by the time Kua could pursue working as an RN—after completing his two-year caregiving work requirement for permanent residency, and applying for an open work permit—his clinical experience would still count.

But things had changed by the time he received his assessment from the CNO, sometime between 2013 and 2014.

“They said I had to go back to school because they changed their policy—instead of accepting nursing experience in the last five years, they [changed] it to three years,” says the 37-year-old.

“So in the time they took to assess my documents, I basically ran out of experience. So I needed to go back to school.”

Kua took the Academic Pathway for Internationally Educated Nurses Program, a graduate certificate program at George Brown College, in 2015.

Still, it wasn’t enough.

After completing the program in 2017, Kua was told he now needed university-equivalent credentials.

This requirement wasn’t mentioned in his earlier assessment letter, which outlined the ‘gaps’ in his nursing experience and provided a list of colleges that offered programs to cover those gaps.

“After I finished the two-year program at George Brown, they sent my transcript to the CNO. The response I got back was that I didn’t meet the education requirements,” says Kua. “They updated my ‘gaps’, and added more requirements.”

Kua’s experiences are not uncommon. Many IENs come to Canada through the caregiver pathway and later find it difficult to practice as RNs.

This is due to many factors, including the time and financial resources it takes to complete bridging programs and language proficiency requirements that come with expiry dates, particularly the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), where results are valid for two years. Delays in paperwork, such as PR backlogs and document retrievals from educational and professional institutions overseas, make the process more time-consuming and expensive.

This hasn’t always been the case, however.

According to Valerie Damasco, a lecturer and researcher at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, interviews with nurses and historical documents reveal Canada’s recruitment of nurses from the Philippines in the early 1960s—among whom was her aunt.

“I’m not sure if the correct word to use here is ‘easy,’ but certainly [Filipino] nurses fit the criteria [of nurses] they needed here,” Damasco says, referring to the ease with which IENs from the Philippines were then able to work as RNs in Canada.

Damasco is currently completing a book based on her doctoral thesis, which explores the migration of Filipino nurses to Canada from 1957 to 1969. She found that Filipino nurses arrived through direct recruitment from hospitals in the Philippines, or through the U.S., where nurses who completed an exchange program would migrate northward instead of returning to Asia.

With the shortage of nurses in Canada, it wasn’t difficult for Filipino IENs to start working in Canadian hospitals right away, says Damasco. It also helped that the nurses who were educated in the Philippines went through an American curriculum, and eventually worked in hospitals with an Americanized setup.

“If you were to ask these nurses what they did as soon as they arrived in Canada, they said they didn’t have an orientation. They started working the next day. They already knew how to manage the floors, without having to receive additional training from the hospital. They knew what they were doing,” says Damasco.

“So these were candidates that [Canadian hospitals] really wanted, who fit the criteria that they were looking for.”

Ontario air ambulance paramedics vote in favour of strike

Duration: 02:10

 

The union representing air ambulance paramedics in Ontario says its members voted 94 per cent in favour of striking, but describes the move as a 'last resort

 cbc.ca

IN THE EU BANKS ARE UNIONIZED
Commerzbank nears deal on job cuts in talks with labour reps - sources


FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Commerzbank is nearing a deal with labour representatives on its restructuring plan that includes 10,000 job cuts globally, people close to the matter said

.

© Reuters/Ralph Orlowski FILE PHOTO:

 A Commerzbank logo is pictured before the bank's annual news conference in Frankfurt

Management of Germany's second-biggest listed lender and the bank's works council have already reached an agreement in principle, they said, adding that the deal could be officially signed by the end of the week.

Spokespeople for Commerzbank and the works council declined to comment.

Commerzbank Chief Executive Manfred Knof said earlier this year that the turnaround plan would do without forced redundancies in Germany. The restructuring is instead focussing on early retirement programs.

As part of its restructuring, Commerzbank is shuttering 350 of its 800 branches in Germany and retreating from several countries.

Commerzbank hopes the revamp will revive its fortunes, as it struggles to restore profits after management reshuffles and strategy flip-flops. It has never fully recovered after a state bailout during the last financial crisis more than a decade ago and lost 2.9 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in 2020.

($1 = 0.8306 euros)
(Reporting by Patricia Uhlig; Writing by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Maria Sheahan)

André Leon Talley Discusses Wage Disparity At Vogue While Appearing On ‘Tamron Hall’

Sarah Curran 
ET CANADA
MAY 3,2021

© Photo: Getty Images Andre Leon Talley

André Leon Talley is opening up on the "double standards" he experienced during his time working as an editor at Vogue.

The fashion journalist spoke about salary disparities at the iconic publication while joining "Tamron Hall" on Monday, May 3.

RELATED: André Leon Talley Opens Up About Being Sexually Abused As A Child: ‘I Still Don’t Know Who To Trust’

“I just found out two weeks ago from someone of authority that women at Vogue, high, high rate fashion editors made close to a million dollars," he said. "I never made that much in a year. I made almost $300,000, but people on the same level, maybe they were doing more work than the fashion photoshoots, were making $900,000 a year."

Talley continued, "They don't make that anymore, but this is, this what comes when you live in
 America, when you're a Black person, you have to wake up and you know there’s a double standard.”

The comments come in the wake of Talley's recent rift with Vogue Editor-In-Chief, Anna Wintour, following her statement amid last year's Black Lives Matter protests.

On the current status of his relationship with Wintour, Talley shared, "We are friendly, and we care about each other."

RELATED: André Leon Talley Gives Update On His Friendship With Anna Wintour, Admits Parts Of His New Book Are ‘Probably Very Painful For Her To Read’

He went on, "In this complicated friendship, in this passive aggressive friendship, you know we sail by each other's port of call, we sometimes miss each other's port of call, but sometimes we navigate back around, and I'm looking forward to the day when Anna Wintour calls me and says, ‘Come to my house in Bellport for the weekend.’”

Talley also spoke about whether or not he would ever attend the Met Gala again.

“I have since been in communication with Anna Wintour since she made her announcement about her lack of diversity in Vogue and she has certainly accelerated the inclusivity of diversity in Vogue - on the covers and in the content," he added.

RELATED: André Leon Talley Slams Anna Wintour’s Black Lives Matter Statement

"So we have been in communications by emails strictly, on birthdays and holidays, and she thanked me for that support. And I would absolutely, if she sent me an invitation, I would go to the Met Ball, I said in the book I would never go back. But if she sent me an invitation I would go to the Met Ball."

ET Canada has reached out to Vogue for comment.

"Tamron Hall" airs weekdays on Global.

Uber, Lyft have a California playbook to fight proposed U.S. rules on workers

© Reuters/Mike Blake FILE PHOTO: A sign marks a rendezvous location for Lyft and Uber users at San Diego State University in San Diego

By Tina Bellon

(Reuters) -Uber, Lyft and other gig-economy companies face a new challenge from the Biden administration to their use of contract workers, but as they gear up for a fight in Washington they could turn to a lobbying playbook that helped them score a decisive win against California regulators last year.

U.S. President Joe Biden campaigned on the promise of providing legal protections and benefits to gig workers, who as independent contractors generally have no access to unemployment insurance, sick pay and health insurance. U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said last week: "A lot of gig workers should be classified as employees."

In Congress, Democratic lawmakers are pushing a union-supported labor bill, the PRO Act, that in part is modeled after a California law called AB5 that reclassified most gig workers as employees.

AB5, however, is no longer the law in California for ride-hail and food delivery workers, while it remains in effect for other freelancers. Uber Technologies Inc, Lyft Inc, DoorDash Inc and Instacart, whose business model relies on low-cost flexible labor, mounted a $205 million campaign that overturned the law for the industry last November.

Among the tactics honed in the California fight, the gig-work companies used their apps to reach out to voters and drivers through messages, emails, mailed leaflets, billboards, radio and online ads. They also urged workers on their platforms to speak out against AB5.

The companies threatened an end to ubiquitous food-delivery and ride-hail services many consumers have gotten used to during the pandemic if drivers were classified employees.

The looming fight over the status of gig-economy workers comes amid a wider debate over business regulation. The federal government exercised a light hand in regulating Uber, DoorDash and other digital-economy companies as they redefined traditional definitions of work, communications or retailing. Now, Democrats and Republicans in Washington, for different reasons, are calling for the government to exercise more control over one-time startups that dominate significant sectors of the economy.

Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart so far this year have spent a combined $1.3 million to lobby the Biden administration and members of the U.S. House and Senate, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2020 they spent some $5.7 million, more than half of which came from Uber.

LOBBYING PUSH

Less than two weeks after Biden won the White House in November, companies banded together to form the App-Based Work Alliance, a Washington-based advocacy group. The group is now promoting statements of drivers and food-delivery workers saying they want to remain independent contractors, and do not want the PRO Act because they fear it would deprive them of opportunities to earn money on their own schedule for a few hours a week.

The companies cite surveys to argue the majority of their mostly part-time workers do not want to be classified as employees.

While the surveys show massive support for remaining independent contractors, they also follow years of threats by the companies of eliminating work opportunities if workers become employees. Some of the surveys are co-written by researchers with company ties, sponsored by the companies or completed with unscientific methodologies by a blogger who sent out emails and social media posts.

For example, one study by the National Bureau of Economic Research listed Uber's chief economist, Jonathan Hall, as a co-author, and a 2020 survey of 1,000 drivers by Benenson Strategy Group and GS Strategy Group was paid for by Uber. Uber said that while it paid for the poll, the survey was conducted by reputable research groups.

In California, the gig companies did not simply oppose any changes to their employment practices. Instead, they campaigned for compromise, advocating changes to labor laws to allow workers to remain contractors while also receiving more modest benefits than required for employees.

DoorDash said its workers on average work just four hours a week, while Uber said 37% of its U.S. drivers and 58% of its delivery people averaged fewer than 10 hours per week in the last quarter of 2020. The companies say those part-time gigs would become impossible under an employment model.

But Uber data from the fourth quarter of 2019, before the pandemic, also showed that California drivers working 25 hours and more per week completed more than 60% of all trips in the state, suggesting that full-time drivers complete the bulk of the work.

DRIVER ADVOCACY

Gig Workers Rising, a group of workers that advocates for greater benefits and says it does not receive financial support from labor groups, in a statement dismissed the companies' compromise proposal.

"(The proposal) is not a blueprint for workers' rights, it's a game plan for gig corporations and investors looking to maximize their profits," the group said in a statement.

The defeat of AB5 for app-based gig workers in California was a blow to organized labor groups, California's Democrats and even Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who had urged the state's voters to reject the gig industry's proposal.

Though AB5 is gone, gig workers in California now have access to some benefits, including healthcare subsidies, accident insurance and minimum pay while passengers are in their car. Those benefits are significantly less costly to the companies than employee benefits and labor groups say drivers do not know how to access them.

As the fight over gig-worker rights heats up on the national level, the companies could deploy similar measures.

"Right now there's no call for action, but if that became the case, for example if a real piece of legislation or ballot measure was put forward, we'd certainly activate our driver base," a Lyft spokeswoman said.

Uber and DoorDash said they had no specific plans for an outreach campaign as of now. Uber in August sent an email to all its drivers nationwide, outlining its proposal for a change in law to combine independent contractor status with some benefits.

(Reporting by Tina Bellon in Austin, TexasEditing by Matthew Lewis)

(Corrects to reflect that AB5 is no longer the law in California for ride-hail and food-delivery workers, instead of that AB5 is no longer the law in California for anyone, paragraph 5; also corrects paragraph 20 to reflect that AB5 was defeated "for app-based gig workers.")

Uber and Lyft will outperform despite US Labor Secretary's comments that gig workers should be treated as employees, Wedbush says

wdaniel@businessinsider.com (Will Daniel)

'

© Provided by Business Insider The future of Uber and Lyft drivers - and the companies - will likely hinge on a hugely important vote in California this November. Brian Snyder/Reuters

Wedbush's Dan Ives maintained his "outperform" ratings for Lyft and Uber in a note to clients on Sunday.

The managing director of equity research said the rideshare giants are ideal reopening stocks.

Based on checks with industry legal experts, Ives believes federal involvement in gig workers' status is "highly unlikely."

Wedbush Securities' Dan Ives maintained his "outperform" ratings on shares of Uber and Lyft in a note to clients on Sunday.

The managing director of equity research said he expects the rideshare services to take advantage of a "massive rebound in demand" and show a "healthy profitability trajectory" in their upcoming first-quarter earnings reports.

Ives holds a $76 price target for shares of Uber and an $85 price target for shares of Lyft.

Ives' Uber price target represents a potential 39% jump in share prices from Friday's closing price while his price target for Lyft represents a potential 52% surge

Shares of Uber and Lyft fell last week after US Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said "in a lot of cases gig workers should be classified as employees" in an interview with Reuters.

Uber and Lyft rely on labor from "gig economy" workers to run their businesses. A changing classification of gig workers to employees would mean increased costs for the rideshare companies.

Ives said that despite a sell-off after the news broke, based on discussions with experts on labor law issues, he believes "federal involvement in this issue would be very complex and highly unlikely without legislation changes, which at minimum would take significant time to play out."

The managing director added that Uber and Lyft have been proactive in pushing the gig economy model and he believes they will ultimately find a "middle ground approach" over the coming years.

Ives also noted Lyft's recent sale of its Level 5 autonomous vehicle unit to Toyota for $550 million will help accelerate its path to profitability and Uber's new delivery and mobility upgrades should bolster its revenues during the beginning of another "roaring 20's."

Overall, Ives appears unfazed by the recent comments from the US Labor Secretary and remains very bullish on the two rideshare giants, calling them a "pure bounce-back demand" play for investors.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Rights activists skeptical as Canadian fashion brands carefully deny using China forced labour

Tom Blackwell 

NATIONAL POST

MAY 3,2021

It’s been a tough few months for some of the world’s top apparel brands.

© Provided by National Post People rally outside the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., February 19, 2021.

After repudiating cotton allegedly produced with forced labour from China’s Uyghur minority, firms like Nike, Adidas and H&M have faced a sharp backlash in the country, imperilling their access to the lucrative market.

Canada’s leading clothing brands, on the other hand, are not exactly sticking their necks out on the issue.

Some told the National Post recently they do not source or have taken steps to avoid sourcing cotton made with forced labour in the Xinjiang region, but only one has joined an international association of manufacturers addressing the issue. None have signed a human-rights consortium ‘s pledge to take verifiable action in the area.

Companies surveyed by the Post offered broad statements of principle on the topic, but few details about their supply chains in China, or criticism of the country for allegedly coercing Uyghurs into textile work.

One Canadian firm with a growing presence in the China market, Vancouver-based Lululemon Athletica, did not respond to repeated queries about where ingredients for its products originate.

Mehmet Tohti, a Uyghur-Canadian activist, said he takes Canadian manufacturers’ assurances about the issue with a grain of salt.

“Many companies are deeply afraid to talk openly,” said Tohti, citing the recent blacklisting of Western brands in China. “Secondly, there is a huge benefit from forced labour for a company, because you can get the products cheap.”

No Canadian manufacturer has signed a “call to action” developed by the Coalition to End Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region, noted Lori Waller of Above Ground, an Ottawa-based labour-rights group. The manifesto requires brands to eschew any products made in Xinjiang or other workplaces that exploit Uyghur workers.

“It’s really not enough to simply ask suppliers to sign statements that none of their products contain this,” she said. “You need to do some work to verify.”

Meanwhile, little action appears to have flowed from a new set of federal rules designed to counter the use of forced labour in Xinjiang and elsewhere, federal officials indicate.

Human rights groups, the United Nations, journalists and others have documented a broad campaign of repression against the Muslim Uyghurs, including a network of re-education camps believed to hold a million or more people.

Amid reports of forced sterilization and rape in the camps, Canada’s House of Commons, the U.S. and other nations have labeled the actions genocide.

There is also growing evidence that Uyghurs are being compelled to work for meagre pay in factories and in the Xinjiang fields and mills that produce 20 per cent of the world’s cotton. One in five clothing items sold in the West includes such textile, the Uyghur forced-labour coalition estimates.

Canada joins U.S. and U.K. in imposing sanctions on China over treatment of Uyghur Muslims

New report argues China clearly committing genocide against Uyghur people

The Post asked six of Canada’s best-known clothing brands if they had investigated whether their supply chains involved forced labour in China, whether they had concerns on that front and if they were removing any suppliers involved in such work in Xinjiang.

Most cited codes of conduct and other policies that insist on fair labour practices from their suppliers. Few answered the questions directly; one not at all.

The media-relations office at Lululemon, which already has 50 yoga-wear stores in China and has said it wants to expand there, failed to respond to five emailed requests for comment.

Others were somewhat more forthcoming.

Canada Goose, whose CEO recently said China is an “increasingly crucial” market for the parka manufacturer, requires all of its suppliers, “no matter where they are in the world,” to sign a supplier code of conduct barring use of forced labour, the firm said through an outside public-relations firm. The statement did not mention Xinjiang.

Roots, which has 26 “partner-operated” stores in China and two in Hong Kong, said it does not source “any product directly from the Xinjiang” and requires direct suppliers to certify an absence of forced labour, said spokeswoman Kristen Davies . Meanwhile, it continues to “actively review” its supply chain.

Joe Fresh, the cheap-chic fashion line owned by Loblaws, “reached out to vendors for a commitment that they will not use cotton from the Xinjiang region,” said Loblaws spokeswoman Catherine Thomas.

Aritzia “does not manufacture in China’s Xinjiang region and is in full compliance with all trade regulations,” said vice president Renee Smith-Valade. It is also the only one of the companies that belongs to the Better Cotton Initiative , a non-profit that has spoken out about forced-labour in Xinjiang.

Hudson’s Bay, which has several private-label clothing brands, “does not use factories in, or source cotton from, Xinjiang,” stated spokeswoman Tiffany Bourre.

But Penelope Kyritsis of the Washington, D.C.-based Workers Rights Consortium said statements like those of the Canadian companies are little more than rhetoric until they sign on to something like the call to action and vigorously verify their commitments.

“So I couldn’t tell you with satisfaction that their supply chains are free of Uyghur forced labour,” she said.

The new federal regulations implemented last July bar imports of products made wholly or in part from forced labour. They require companies that do business in Xinjiang and get help from the government’s Trade Commissioner to sign a Xinjiang integrity declaration. And they ban exports that could be used in human rights abuses, like Beijing’s omnipresent surveillance of Uyghurs.

Asked repeatedly if any imports have so far been banned, officials from Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said only that the government is working on the issue.

CBSA is responsible for intervening based on research conducted by Employment and Social Development Canada, but it’s not an easy task, said agency spokeswoman Jacquie Callin.

“There is no visual clue for a Border Services officer to understand the labour standards by which a particular import was produced,” she said. “It takes research, coordination and diligence amongst all stakeholders to establish reliable and actionable sources of information.”

But Waller said there is much that Canada could do now, primarily by making use of work already done by the United States: It has barred numerous Chinese products from entering the U.S. because of suspected involvement of forced labour, including a blanket ban on cotton and tomatoes from Xinjiang.

“From everything that we’re hearing so far, it’s still very much in the stage of figuring out how to enforce it,” said Waller about Ottawa’s efforts.

Unless Canada quickly follows the American lead, it risks being used as a “backdoor” by China for getting banned forced-labour products into the U.S., warned Tohti.

One Canadian company has signed the Xinjiang integrity declaration and others are “conducting their due diligence” before signing, though none can be identified for commercial-confidentiality reasons, said a GAC spokesman.

As for rejecting export permits for products that could be used in rights abuses, department officials said only that aggregate information on various types of permit denials is contained in the annual report on Export of Military Goods to be tabled May 31.

But that document offers almost no information on why permits are denied, and none on the export product itself.